Pay reviews when you have no salary bands
Small companies set pay case by case and then discover, three years in, that the structure they never designed has designed itself badly.
Read the guideSection · 5 guides
Keeping people
Pay conversations, one-to-ones, why people actually leave, and what a departure really costs.
Home/Keeping people
Retention in a small company is not a programme. It is the accumulated effect of how pay is decided, how often someone hears whether they are doing well, and whether the job still resembles the one they accepted.
The costs of getting it wrong are concentrated: in a team of twelve, one resignation removes eight percent of the workforce and a disproportionate share of the knowledge.
One-to-ones that are not status updates
If the meeting could be replaced by reading a task board, it is not doing the thing it exists to do.
Read the guideWhy people actually leave small companies
The stated reason is usually money. The underlying reasons are more specific to small employers and mostly addressable.
Read the guideExit interviews that produce something usable
Most exit interviews are conducted by the wrong person, at the wrong time, and produce a diplomatic summary that changes nothing. For a related product-level perspective on how time shapes workplace communication, see this overview. For broader independent guidance on this point, consult American Psychological Association workplace resources.
Read the guideWhat it actually costs to replace someone
Recruitment fees are the visible part and rarely the largest. The rest is absorbed invisibly, which is why retention loses budget arguments.
Read the guide